Electronic mail (“e-mail”) is commonly used to send and receive messages electronically. When using e-mail to send a message, a sender employs an e-mail client application software (“mail user agent”) to compose and send the e-mail message. The e-mail message can include text and attachments. An attachment is a file that is sent with the e-mail, such as a picture, a video file, an audio file, a word-processing document, and so forth. The e-mail message specifies recipients for the message by indicating e-mail addresses to which the message should be delivered. An e-mail address is an identifier for a sender or recipient of an e-mail message. An e-mail message can also include other attributes, such as a subject.
When the sender indicates to a mail user agent (“MUA”) to send the message, the MUA can employ one or more data communications protocols to send the e-mail message. A commonly employed protocol for sending e-mail is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (“SMTP”). The MUA employs SMTP to send the e-mail to a mail transport server. The mail transport server can be interconnected with other mail transport servers, such as via the Internet. The mail transport server can deliver e-mail it receives to the indicated e-mail addresses. If the indicated e-mail addresses correspond to another mail transport server, the mail transport server that received the message can cause the message to be forwarded to the other mail transport server. The recipient can employ an MUA to retrieve the e-mail message from the other mail transport server.
Sending and receiving e-mail messages can involve a significant amount of text. Senders and recipients type text into e-mail messages even though the messages may include attachments. Even though some MUAs offer graphical user interfaces (“GUIs”) or other user interfaces (“UIs”), the GUIs are often complicated and text-intensive. Although there are over one billion e-mail addresses, an untapped market of e-mail users exists because in excess of 6.5 billion inhabit the Earth. Unfortunately, many of these people are not e-mail users because (1) they are illiterate or partially literate (jointly, “unliterate”); (2) are novice computer users; or (3) do not yet have access to computers.